Little by little

Well, Friday night turned out to be not at all what I had expected.  DH pulled a muscle in his back at the gym, so I offered to make him a rice-filled heating pad.  Then I ended up dipping about five dozen potato candy balls in chocolate and prepping an apple pie for our church's holiday fair, which was held today.  I thought I might squeeze in a bit more sewing after I got home from my morning shift at the fair's bake table, but DD asked for a heating pad for *herself* and, since she was such a big helper at the fair, I acquiesced. She went bike riding with her daddy after lunch, and while they were gone, I took a nap.  So much for my Friday Night Sew In.

OMG.

My new sewing & embroidery machine arrived this afternoon.  It's a Brother SE-400.  Isn't it cute?

Brother SE-400

Last Sunday, I was at a meeting after church and got into a discussion with a woman who is somewhat new to the church.  I discovered that she is a quilter, and she mentioned something about having a new embroidery machine (I have no idea what make/model it is), and if I wanted to try it out sometime I could.  Somehow, between that conversation and Monday afternoon, I talked myself into buying a machine of my own.  (I am SO easy.)  For a mere $388, including shipping (but let's not tell DH, OK?), I now have a combination sewing and embroidery machine that so completely surpasses my Viking 500 (which I paid twice as much for nearly 20 years ago) that I am kicking myself for not having thought of this sooner.

So far, I have made a sample corded buttonhole, practiced monogramming, tried out some scalloped (shell) pintucks, and a bunch of other basic stitches.  I read several posts on PR suggesting that I would want a larger hoop/embroidery area than the 4x4 inch one this machine has, but I am having a hard time imagining WHY I might need one.  It will take me months just to figure out and play around with all the features this one's got.

What I DO need, however, is a name for it (her?).  I am open to suggestions...